SB5: Mechanical bracken control
Find out about eligibility and requirements for the mechanical bracken control item.
This item is part of Higher Tier Capital Grants 2025. You must read the Capital Grants 2025 guidance to understand the rules and how to apply.
How much you’ll be paid
£190.90 per hectare (ha).
How this item benefits the environment
Managing bracken can:
- restore or maintain high value natural habitats and the wildlife that live there
- protect archaeological features
- help maintain or enhance the landscape’s character
Where you can use this item
You’ll need to get permission from Natural England (or the Forestry Commission for woodland) based on a bracken management plan. This plan must include Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles before using this item.
You can use it to manage bracken alongside management actions or options on habitats such as:
- dry grassland
- woodland (including the creation and maintenance of new woodland)
- sand dunes
- moorland
- lowland heathland
What you must do to use this item
You’ll need to agree a specification for the work with Natural England (or the Forestry Commission for woodland).
Your adviser will adapt the requirements for this item to your site. You should discuss and agree these requirements with them.
Evidence you must keep
You must keep photographs of the completed work and provide with your claim.
You must also keep and provide on request:
- any consents or permissions connected with the work
- receipted invoices or bank statements where a receipted invoice is unavailable
- copies of the implementation plan or feasibility study (if applicable)
Read the record keeping and site visit requirements in the Agreement holder’s guide: Capital Grants, Higher Tier capital grants and Protection and Infrastructure grants for more information.
Items and actions you can use with this item
Capital items
You can use this item with these capital plans:
Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier actions
You can use with these actions:
CHL2: Restore lowland heathland
CHL3: Create lowland heathland
CWD1: Woodland improvement
CUP2: Manage rough grazing for birds
CUP3: General moorland management
Advice to help you use this item
The following advice may help you to use this item, but you do not have to follow it to get paid. It’s not part of this item’s requirements.
Managing bracken
Natural England will help you choose the best method of bracken management.
Requirements on larger sites
You’ll need an implementation plan approved by Natural England or a feasibility study on larger sites (particularly where major habitat restoration is involved). This will include:
- the areas you’ll manage
- the methods of management you’ll use
- any follow up treatments to manage re-growth
- any risks to sites of archaeological or ecological importance, soil erosion risks or effects on the landscape (short and long term)
The plan must include:
- sustainable land use
- how it’s appropriate to the area
- soil type
- topography (how the land’s shape and features affect the soil)
- climate
- hydrology (water storage and movement)
- ecological and historic designations
- priority species
- what habitats are already in the area
Requirements for small sites
You may only need a simple plan for smaller, less complex sites. It should include a map showing areas you’ll treat and your planned schedule for managing the site. You may not need an implementation plan or feasibility study.
Environmental concerns
Make sure the planned bracken management has a minimal negative effect on other environmental interests on the site. You should follow Natural England’s bracken management and control guidelines.
Mechanical control may cause more disturbance to archaeological sites, ground nesting birds and invertebrates than chemical control. During the nesting season, make sure that birds are not nesting in the treated area.
Frequency of treatments
You should treat the site twice in year 1. Repeat this for at least 3 years, depending on the level of success achieved.
What to do if the site regenerates
You can reduce the likelihood of bracken regenerating by combining with appropriate grazing. This is because livestock trampling helps manage bracken. As the site regenerates, you may need to manage any bracken regrowth or weeds such as nettle, thistle, dock or ragwort. An IPM approach may reduce and potentially remove the use of pesticides.
Updates to this page
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General improvement for clarity.
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Can be used as a standalone capital item and not just in combination with a land management option.
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Information updated for applications in 2016
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First published.